Person:Isabella Knarston (1)

Isabella Knarston’s origins have yet to be established. Her first confirmed sighting is on 26th January 1782 when she married a farmer called Edward Clouston at Stenness in Orkney. They went on to have three children together: Henry (or Harry) later in 1782, Marjory in 1785 and John in 1789. Henry and Marjory were both baptised at Stenness, and their baptisms record that the family lived at a farm called Biggings in the Ireland area of Stenness parish. John was baptised in the neighbouring parish of Orphir, and the family was recorded as living at a place called Garsin in the Clestrain area of Orphir, which is a mile or two south of Biggings. They appear to have later returned to Stenness.

Isabella’s son Harry died aged 39 in 1822 in Stenness, leaving a widow and young children. He had been a ship carpenter.

Edward and Isabella died just a few days apart. Edward was buried at Stenness on an unspecified date in March 1829. Isabella’s burial was then the next but one entry in the register; she was buried at Stenness on 28th March 1829. She and Edward had been married for 47 years.

1. ↑ Scotland. Old Parish Registers, Deaths & Burials. (Edinburgh, Scotland: ScotlandsPeople (National Records of Scotland))
   017/20 197 Firth & Stenness.

   1829 / Mar[ch] [no day specified] / [No.] 2 Edward Clouston in Stenness
   [then an entry for someone else dated 25 March, then]
   M[a]r[ch] 28th / [No.] 4 Isaballa Knarston spous to Edward Clouston Eaged 60 [1768/9]

   Ages given at death are often unreliable, and the age given for Isabella here is considered likely to be underestimate, given that were it accurate it would make her only twelve or thirteen when she married.

2.   There was an Isabella Knarston baptised at Stromness, immediately west of Stenness, in 1752, who may be this lady. However, there was another Isabella Knarston who married in the parish of Firth and Stenness in 1772 to James Leask and was having children with him there through to the 1790s both in Firth and Stenness, and in Stromness. It would seem more likely that the 1752 baptism is that lady.